The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, November 3, 2006 Page: 9 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, NOVEMBER
3,2006
SCENE
Thresher editors'
recommendations for
arts and entertainment
around Houston through
November 10, 2006
FILM
Room
The film Room shows
tonight at 7 and 9 p.m. and
again Sunday at 7 p.m. at
the Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston. Room is directed
by Kyle Henry (Baker '96) and
has shown at the Sundance
and Cannes Film Festivals.
Tickets cost $6 with a Rice ID.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1001 Bissonnet St.
www.mfah.org
ROCK
MTV2 tour
Next Thursday the MTV2
Tour brings a group of bands
including 30 Seconds to
Mars arid Head Automatica to
Houston. Doors are at
6 p.m. and the show starts at
7 p.m. Tickets cost $21.50 at
www.livenation.com
Verizon Wireless Theater
520 Texas Ave.
JAZZ
Wadada Leo Smith
Tomorrow at 8 p.m. California-
based jazz trumpet player
Wadada Leo Smith plays
with his Golden Quartet.
The concert is presented by
Nameless Sound, formerly
known as Deep Listening
Institute Houson. Tickets cost
$10 with a Rice ID.
Barnvelder Movement
Arts Complex
2201 Preston St.
www.namelesssound.org
g Borat Sagdiyev (Da All G Show's Sacha Baron Cohen) travels the United States confusing and disturbing ordinary Americans.
COURTESY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
by Julia Bursten
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Sometimes, the boundaries of
political correctness just need to be
crossed. And sometimes, they need
to be assaulted, molested, mooned,
tarred, feathered and poked with a
stick. Thai is precisely what Sacha
Baron Cohen does in Borat: Cultural
Learnings of America for Make Ben-
efit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Cohen's brand of comedy is simply,
caustically revolutionary, and it is
an indispensable tool to point out
the need for cultural change here
in America.
'borat'
★ ★★★★ of five
now playing at AMC and
Edwards theaters
Unless the wool of mind-numbing
network television has been pulled
over your eyes since the year 2000,
you have seen Cohen before. His Da
Ali G Show, a British satirical variety
show with Colbert Report-csque ir-
reverence and characters that would
make Andy Kaufmann proud, airs on
in the U.S. on HBO and has been hon-
ored by the British Academy of Film
and Television Arts. He assumes a
few recurring characters and inter-
acts with the unsuspecting public to
produce offensively innovative social
commentaries—he has interviewed
celebrities from Gore Vidal to Noam
Chomsky as Ali G, a purposefully
dimwitted hip-hop fan.
Now, Cohen hits the big screen as
Borat Sagdiyev, a Kazakh television
personality on a fact-finding mission
to America. He must make a docu-
mentary for the Kazakh Ministry of
Information and use the secrets of
the first world to benefit his home
country. On the way, he goes over
budget, offends most of the people
he encounters, discovers Baywatch
and falls in love—with plenty of time
left over for gratuitous, hairy male
nudity, the mocking of fraternities
and tongue-in-cheek anti-Semitism.
The film begins in Kazakhstan
with Borat giving the audience a
show-and-tell tour of his home. The
village he invaded for this purpose is
comically antithetical to many Ameri-
can ideals of progressive society,
but its inhabitants
revere capitalism
and materialism —
women have few to
no rights, but they
compete for the
honor of being the
best prostitute in
the area. It sounds
terrible, and it is
truly and deeply of-
fensive, but Cohen's
idiosyncratic mix of
gravity and sarcasm keeps audiences
laughing so hard they cannot move
their feet to walk out in disgust.
As Borat and his sidekick Azamat
Bagatov (A Man Apart's Ken Davi-
tian) head to America, the parodies
hit closer to home. Crowd scenes in
New York City and Ix>s Angeles prove
particularly humorous, mainly due to
the fact that it is impossible for the by-
standers to discern whether Borat is
serious or sarcastic. The uncertainty
becomes outright turmoil once Borat
heads south to learn etiquette, but
his calling a Midwestern housewife
a gypsy because of her garage sale
is surprisingly anticlimactic.
Borat is not intended to be impres-
sive for its technical filming, and it
isn't. Quite a few of the scenes look
homemade, full of shaky cameras,
poor angles and shadows. But the
film's premise as a low-budget
documentary explains away the
camera mishaps, and the amateur
framing actually contributes to the
atmosphere of the story.
Some of the most interesting
twists to the Borat story have come
from off-screen performances by
Cohen in character. The comedian
has a knack for confusing his media
cohorts and the general public
when it comes to his identity, and
the Hungarian news wire MTI re-
ported last November that "Borat
Sagdiyev" hosted the MTV Europe
Music Awards. Sure, any publicity
is good, but Cohen also got into
some trouble with the government
of Kazakhstan after the production
of the Borat film: They threatened
to take legal recourses against
him for registering a Kazakh Web
site under a false name. Cohen
responded as Borat, denying any
connection with Cohen and en-
couraging the Kazakh government
to "sue this Jew." And yes, Cohen
is Jewish.
Basically, entering the theater
to experience Borat is simply not
enough effort to appreciate the
satiric genius of Cohen's movement.
So, unless you are offended by scenes
full of villagers singing, 'Throw the
Jew down the well/So my country
can be free," go—please go, because
the film is as hilarious as it is rude.
But read up on Cohen once you
finish your popcorn, watch for him
on YouTube or rent a copy of Da
Ali G Show, and take some time to
think about the cultural holes he is
exposing— the ones that are not in
embarrassing parts of his briefs.
Impeccable Don Giovanni triumphs
by Andrea Leyton-Mange
FOR THE THRESHER
The Houston Grand Opera
has started its 2006-'07 season
with a fantastic success. Mozart's
1787 masterpiece Don Giovanni
showcases timeless drama, laugh-
out-loud humor and some of the
best vocal music ever written.
'don gionvanni'
***★ 1/2 of five
Rice ID discount:
udents can buy day-of
tickets for $15
houstongrandopera.org
Don Giovanni was Mozart's
second collaboration with Italian
librettist Ix>renzo da Ponte after
their wildly successful U nozze di
Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
premiered in Vienna the year be-
fore. The legend of Don Juan, the
lu sth.il womanizer of Seville, serves
as the basis for numerous operas.
But the version by Mozart and da
Ponte is beyond comparison.
From the very first moments
of the production, Don Giovanni
captures the audience's emotion
and attention. The HGO orchestra
is flawless during the overture,
which is notably darker than
those of Mozart's other comic
operas. Within five minutes of
the first singer's entrance, the
audience witnesses a seduction
and attempted rape, a violent pur-
suit, swordfighting and murder.
'Hie deep, believable characters
and thoughtful music allow
the action to alternate effort-
lessly between serious drama and
riotous comedy.
Young Polish baritone Mariusz
Kwiecien owns the stage as Don
Giovanni in his HGO debut. He
is seductive, conniving, thought-
less and astoundingly likable.
Kwiecien's intense but tender
voice can be heard brilliantly over
the orchestra throughout the the-
ater, and his clear language and
tone adapt easily to the varying
styles of bis duplicitous character.
His strong presence on stage
and the sweetness and sincerity
of his courtship songs make the
thought of Giovanni's thousands
of female conquests unsurprising,
if undeserved.
Soprano Ana Maria Martinez
does an admirable job as Donna
Elvira, one of Don Giovanni's
former lovers who attempts to
expose his crime and deceit.
The role suits Martinez like
none other she has performed
in Houston in recent years. Her
vocal tone is sensational and
consistent, blooming in her up-
per middle range and narrowing
beautifully for Mozart's notori-
ously difficult high passages.
Martinez also brings out the
humor of her character's interac-
tion with Giovanni without losing
the audience's sympathy for her
as a victim of betrayal.
Baritone Oren Gradus plays
Don Giovanni's servant and comic
sidekick Leporello. Gradus' por-
trayal of leporello — a character
who cannot decide whether he is
more afraid of his master or his
enemies — is funny and creative.
Gradus' sound is pleasant and con-
versational. but his lower range is
sometimes lost in the large hall.
Soprano Alexandra Deshort-
ies, who plays Donna Anna for
the second time in her career,
has good dramatic instinct and a
substantial voice, but her singing
became labored in her sustained
arias. Promising young lyric tenor
Garrett Sorenson is an enjoyable
Don Ottavio, and Raymond Aceto
as the Commendatore delivers
well one of the most famous lines
in all of opera.
The deep,
believable
characters and
thoughtful music
allow the action
to alternate
EFFORTLESSLY
between serious
drama and
riotous comedy.
Conductor and HGO music
director Patrick Summers heads
this excellent production. There
are some minor timing issues —
mainly involving the singer De-
shorties. who missed a portion
of the rehearsal period due to
illness. Regardless, the HGO's
production of Don Giovanni's
strengths vastly overwhelm a few
minor weaknesses.
Don Giovanni will be playing at
HGO through Nov. 11. It is sung in
Italian with English surtitles and
would make a fantastic introduc-
tion to opera.
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Brown, David. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, November 3, 2006, newspaper, November 3, 2006; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443090/m1/9/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.